As promised here is the item which I have come across today and...

As promised here is the item which I have come across today and which has just been released today which provides some very interesting comment on the recent surge in the PRC share price.
...........................................................

"Pike River Stock Gains On Australian M&A Activity, High Coking Coal Prices

(Recasts lead, adds updated stock price, comments from brokers.)
By Rebecca Howard
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WELLINGTON (Dow Jones)--New Zealand's Pike River Coal Ltd.. (PRC.NZ) said Friday it wasn't aware of any specific reason why its stock price has moved sharply higher this week but brokers pinned it to sharply higher coking coal prices.
"It is quite simply that coking coal prices are going through the roof at the moment," said Goldman Sachs JB Were institutional advisor Peter Sigley. The stock
was up 0.9% at NZ$1.10 at 0012 GMT while the benchmark NZX-50 was up 0.1%. The stock has risen around 15% since the beginning of trading on Wednesday.
In response to a query from the New Zealand Stock Exchange after the sharp move, Pike River Coal said "the company is not aware of any material information concerning it that has not been announced."
Chief Executive and Managing Director Gordon Ward told Dow Jones Newswires that Pike River is in compliance with the continuous disclosure regulations. He said the company
wouldn't speculate on the reasons why the share price might be moving up or down but said that increasing coking coal prices "was a logical assumption to make."
Goldman Sachs JB Were analyst Matthew Henry has a Buy recommendation on the stock and recently added it to his "conviction list" with a 12-month target price of
NZ$1.50.
"On the basis that they can start to extract coal in meaningful volumes at some stage in the next six to 12 months it looks like the cheapest coal stock in the
world," said Sigley.
Macquarie Equities broker James Lee also said the stock was benefiting from heightened merger and acquisition activity involving Australian coal companies, with multiple takeover bids being the main driver in the stock price.
Both Lee and Sigley said they didn't think Pike River Coal was an immediate takeover target. Sigley said, however, once it is producing coal it would "absolutely" garner interest.
Pike River, which owns a coal mine on the west coast of the South Island, has faced several delays getting the mine fully up and running since it struck coal in October
2008. However, it made its first shipment of 20,000 metric tons of coal in February. According to its latest mine plan, production for the year ended June 30, 2011 is
forecast at a range of between approximately 700,000 and 800,000 tons. The mine is forecast to hit its targeted steady state rate of 1 million tons per annum in the first
half of 2011. It expects the mine to produce 18 million tons of coal over its 18-year
planned life.
New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. (NZO.NZ) has a 29.5% stake in the company and India's Saurashtra World Holding Private Ltd. owns a 6.4% share while Gujarat NRE Ltd. holds a 7.6% stake.
Gujarat and Saurashtra Fuels have agreed to take a combined 55% of the company's coal over the mine's lifetime. New Zealand Oil & Gas Limited also has an option, granted as part of March 2010 funding arrangements, to purchase currently uncontracted
coal to March 31, 2013 and then up to a further 30% for the life of the mine. Pike River also has three-year contracts with Japanese steel mills for 22% of coal production.

By Rebecca Howard, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990; [email protected]